Unsaturated derivatives of a wide variety of organic compounds are known to be curable upon heating with a curing agent to thereby produce crosslinked products which exhibit good solvent resistance and mechanical properties as well as relatively high heat distortion temperatures. Such unsaturated derivatives are cured with catalytic or stoichiometric polyfunctional curing agents or by exposure to high intensity energy to produce tough, heat resistant thermoset resins which are processed by conventional methods into sheets, laminates with fiber glass or other reinforcement or shaped articles and the thermoset resins are also useful in adhesive formulations.
Among unsaturated derivatives known to cure or crosslink by conventional technology are allyl or propargyl ethers of bisphenols. The disclosure of Zahir et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,100,140 is illustrative. The compound 2,2-di(4-hydroxylphenyl)propane, also known as bisphenol A or BPA, is converted to the sodium salt and reacted with allyl chloride to produce the diallyl ether of BPA, i.e., 2,2-di(4-allyloxyphenyl)propane. This diallyl compound is curable by reaction with, for example, a bis(maleimide) curing agent.
On some occasions, the cured products which produce the more desirable properties, particularly in high temperature applications, are produced from unsaturated derivatives of polycyclic structure. It would be of advantage to provide a novel class of unsaturated derivatives having a plurality of rings within the molecular structure.